So what started you off on your career path?

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Give it a rest Guys!

And Redbaron, you know we dont allow political discussion on here so why try your luck? please stop!

There is no political discussion other than Lewy trying to start something.
 
New Zealand's "Think Big" projects, all I wanted to do at the time was earn $1000.00 a week, like the guys on those. And, my Father saw the condition I kept my push bike in as a teenager with the constant upgrading of bits and pieces and must have thought - Engineer.

The rest is history, I now travel the world building oil, gas & power plant. Good fun but can be very challenging politically.....
 
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I really never had an intended career path.

I'm not qualified in anything remotely useful. I had a back office job in a stockbrokers, then another then I got laid off. Started agency work and ended up in a bank, then another then further job moves up and sideways etc.

I'm a work to live sorta bloke. I've finally come to realise what I really want to do, ideally a photographer for a car magazine or go self employed but I've got good pension (DB) and relatively safe and content where I am. I'm loathed to jack it in but love landscape photography, automotive photography and travel.
 
Paul/ said:
You derailed it all by yourself with your provocative and crass political comments.

I'm reading a story about a boy who wanted a computer who's dad did everything he could to get him not the one be wanted but a better one. This led to a fulfilling career in IT.

The tales a heart warming one.
 
My dad set me off on my career path because he told me I should have a trade - though things did change over time:

August 78
Apprentice (Austin)
Blue collar
White collar
Uni
Graduation
Another Uni
Graduation
Buy property whilst white collar
Buy more property
Resign from white collar
Buy more property
Feb 2013

Simples :thumb:
 
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redbaron said:
As per the title - what go you into / made you want to follow your chosen career path?

Was there a trigger event? Did you just "fall" in to it or was there a magic "ta-da" moment?

Quite literally, a fall... I fell out of a tree - had a very serious injury, spending 2 years in hospitals in Germany and Italy with a 90% chance of having my arm amputated at one point and being told I would be paralysed for life at another point. During physiotherapy, I was prescribed a computer or games console to exercise my fingers.... I now work in IT, not having touched a pc before the doctors told me to!
 
Started in Banking back in the days when service rather than sales was the thing, quit the bank and worked for a charity, then ended up on data admin in a school for ther last few years before retirement. Retirement is more fun than working :)
 
Worked in IT service since I left school.

I have lived and traveled all over the world through my work. This includes having my flat blown up by the IRA when I lived on Isle of Dogs and then my office knocked down by an aeroplane when I worked in New York.

Still in IT now but settled back in the UK with a grown up Son and two beautiful daughters. Why did I choose IT as a career. The guy who used to fix the computers where I was working said why not give it a go we are looking for engineers. I did give it a go.
 
Careers can be a but hit and miss.
I studied Civil Engineering at arguably the best faculty in the country for that course.
I worked for a consulting engineer for 2 years and got very bored and hacked off partly because the pay was appalling. I jacked it in and joined an accountancy firm in the city. I qualified as an accountant and went to work abroad. First Africa, then Eastern Europe, then came back to the UK. I'm now the FD at a medium sized charity. The pay is not the greatest, far from it, but there is good job satisfaction, flexibility and good holidays.
If I had my time again, I probably would have gone into IT and it is that part of accounting which I enjoy the most.
 
Personally I didn't find redbaron's post offensive either... but it does demonstrate why the rule about not allowing politics on the forum makes a lot of sense.

My long career in IT started when a friend working for an Apple dealer - an almost unknown novelty then - offered me a job with the company he worked for. I had an interest in computers and even took some university courses - but these were room-sized IBM 360/370 with card readers and Teletype terminals - the pinnacle of the 'small' computers was a PDP10. There were brands then that have since disappeared - Philco, Mostek, to name a few. Apple's 'Micro' computers Apple, Apple II, and later the Apple IIc and Apple III were all very exciting machines at the time.

EDIT: I later became a Novell CNE - yet another forgotten brand - and spent large part of my working career designing computer network systems for a variety of clients - including a well-known international tier-1 OE automotive manufacturer who supplies MB...
I also worked on an IBM 360/370 and before that a 1401 .The memory was the size of a fridge and was 8k , we had an upgrade to 12k which arrived on the back of a lorry and needed 4 of us to get it into the computer room!
 
Fell in love. The girl I was seeing decided to move to Germany (from Sweden) to train dressage (riding horses). I decided to come with her and for lack of anything else to do I was helping in the stable, cleaning horse gear, brushing horses and shovelling sh!t!

In the stables there was a man running a small business, he hired me to make coffee and generally help out/learn and I'm still doing the same. Albeit not making much coffee these days.

:)
 
Didn't know what to do after secondary school, did a business studies course. One of the units on that was accounts, the lecture said I had a bit of gift for it and she lectured on an accountancy course that she said would be ideal.

From there I did various jobs and gained experience, and now ended up as a Finance Director for a small tour operator, challenging and tough at the moment.
 
Left school at 16 with O and A levels, plus a place at a decent Uni - studied Electrical Engineering, joined an engineering company and started surveying in the construction industry. Found I was quite good at working out the IT that was coming in at that time, so when the industry crashed I went into IT - developer, analyst, Project Manager, Programme Manager, Development Director. Bored with flying around the world sorting out other people's mistakes so, having worked with major vehicle OEMs worldwide, joined a global consultancy where I now run my own practice.

Most of it has been "right place, right time" accidents. The only lightbulb moment was Mrs E flipping her lid because I hadn't realised the lounge had been decorated, which told me that I was spending far too much time away from the people I love. Nowadays I could earn way more than the good salary I get, but I like the balance I've got in my life (and I hope it can stay that way).
 
After A levels I was going to university to do aeronautical engineering, but decided to take a year off. Applied for the first job I saw in the local newspaper that was within walking distance of my parents' house. Happened to be trainee computer programmer (COBOL, punch cards, IBM 360, OS/MFT) - somehow got in without any knowledge of (or particular interest in) computing.

At the end of the 'year off' my salary had doubled and I was offered the chance to become a systems analyst (a role that was only open to graduates normally) ... so decided I was on to a good thing and not to go off and become an impoverished student with slim prospects of employment in the UK at the end of it!

35 years on and I'm still in IT ... only worked for three different companies in that time, although I've done a lot of different roles. Nine years ago I re-evaluated my 'work/life balance' and took a voluntary downgrade to move away from management, which I've been very happy with.
 
My initial chosen career was as a refuse collector/dustman. The joys of ensuring my broom avoided dog crap and emptying the contents of filthy, rusty dustbins into a Commer "Knocker" refuse lorry remain to this day.:D The fumes from the 2-stroke diesel made you faint...

Failing to get an O-level in maths stymied my chance to go to art school, so I joined a Bank. :doh:

Deliberately kept my head below the parapet (to avoid getting shunted round the country) and it was only in the mid 90s that I found my true vocation setting up anti-fraud systems (Windows 3 :crazy:) the successors of which have been used by our very own *** to this day!

Retired ten years ago at 53 and never looked back.:bannana:
 
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When I was at secondary school way way back in the mists of time, there was a thing known as a "youth employment officer".
It was his job to visit all the secondary schools and interview all the 4th formers.
My interview went something like.....
Him: Well, what do you want to do when you leave school ?
Me: I dont know.
Him: What are you good at in school?
Me: Art, Technical drawing, woodwork. metalwork.
Him: What about doing an engineering apprenticeship?
Me: OK.

He then gave me a pre-printed list of local companies that did engineering apprenticeships.
I wrote to about 5 or 6 of them and to cut along story short, ended up doing a 5 year engineering apprenticeship at Elliott Brothers In Lewisham.
A fantastic place. Full of clever bods and oozed skill.
That was back in 1965.
Where have all those years gone ? ?
 
Left school at 17 and worked in my fathers Estate Agency until he went bump in the early 90's. Ended up at another agents on YTS.

Eventually got fed up with residential agency (and the customers) and decided I needed to get qualified. Did a BTEC in Construction and decided I might as well finish the job so went to Uni to study Valuation and Estate Management on a well regarded course (as opposed to the Institution!).

Two years to qualify after Uni. Did the corporate tread mill, tried Local Authority. Been on my own for 6 years. Very little of my work is now what I would call 'valuing or Surveying'. Quite a lot of project management, and also preparing Lease Plans - which is low skilled, but value added by my experience.

Would I carry on if I win the lottery? Right now I doubt it.
 
Interesting reading this thread :) So many of us seems to be in IT.Engineering or Property in one way or another... is this Merc customer profile or forum user profile?
 

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